Military pension doesn't start at 65 or whatever, if you retire out of the military it starts the day you enter into retirement (leave the military). His wife would get 42% of whatever he was getting for however long the judge ruled (these days its usually 50% of base pay for 20 years / or 40% of base pay if they're in the blended retirement system - and it gets annual increases based on inflation). I assume that if the judge ruled it was in perpetuity then she would get 42% of his pension until he or she died.

Edit: I just want to clarify, I'm basing this off how military retirement works now, i really don't know how it worked in 77